Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to This Week In Apple Rumors, our regular look back at all of the week's unconfirmed gossip, questionably-sourced reports and blatant speculation about future Apple products from around the web! Let's take a look back at what the various Apple blogs and websites were excited about in the past week, from July 1 - 7. Check out our previous edition of Apple rumors here, and for all the latest you can follow me on Twitter right here.

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WATCH OUT, KINDLE FIRE

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We've been talking about the iPad Mini -- a smaller, cheaper version of the iPad, with a display just slightly larger than the Kindle Fire -- for almost ten months, or about as long as the runtime of the movie Prometheus.
What started as an easily-dismissed rumor from a hit-or-miss Wall Street analyst now appears to be an all-but-certain future Apple product, as flashy teen magazine reputable business news site Bloomberg published a report claiming that we'll be seeing a smaller, cheaper version of the iPad -- sound familiar? -- as soon as this October. The Bloomberg article claims that the iPad Mini will have a non-Retina display between 7 and 8-inches, matching the 7.85-inch screen size most analysts and reports from the supply chain have predicted.
The iPad Mini would indeed be a "nightmare" for the Kindle Fire and the Google Nexus 7, both of which are prone to horrifying visions while they sleep, and both of which see much of their appeal over the iPad in their comparatively low prices.
The iPad Mini would especially be a nightmare for the Fire and the yet-to-be-released Nexus 7 if its price were as low as, say, $250 to $300. Which -- wouldn't you know it! -- is exactly how much another news site this week claims the iPad Mini will cost...

Chinese-language tech news site and car insurance management portal MyDrivers.com has a report up from an "anonymous source" who claims knowledge of the upcoming iPad Mini. The source says that the smaller iPad will feature a 7.85-inch screen, will have the thickness of the iPad 2, and will cost between $250 and $300 for an 8GB model.
We're not sure how trustworthy MyDrivers.com is, but $250-$300 seems a safe bet for the price, anyway, and it's the range that we've heard before. If Apple truly wants to challenge the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire -- both of which cost $199 -- it needs something cheaper than its lowest offering ($399 for a new iPad 2). A sub-$300 7-inch iPad would do a lot to pressure cost-conscious potential tablet buyers into considering Apple.
Still don't believe that an iPad Mini is coming out? Well, we've got Tiger Beat-nemesis/business reporting site Bloomberg on-board, as well as a bunch of confident Wall Street analysts, as well as a requisite sketchy Asian supply chain rumor. All that's left is for the Wall Street Journal to confirm that they're hearing something, too, and -- wait, what's that? What's that you say?

And, there you have it. The Wall Street Journal -- the publication with the best access to the notoriously tight-lipped Apple Inc. -- reports that a smaller iPad will be mass produced in September, which (probably) means an October debut.
The WSJ has similar details as Bloomberg -- smaller screen size measuring under eight inches; a lower price to compete with the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire; a probable launch before the end of 2012 -- but also stops short of offering a firm release date or price.
From covering this story for six months, it seems likely (to me) that, unless absolutely everybody has it wrong:
1) The smaller iPad will be out before Christmas, probably in October.
2) It will cost less than $300.
3) It will probably have a better name than "iPad Mini," which makes it sound like a Halloween candy bar.
4) Its display will be less than eight inches but greater than seven inches.
5) It will sell like crazy no matter what they call it.
As October nears, we'll likely be hearing more about this smaller iPad, especially now that reputable heavyweights Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal are confirming its existence. Stay tuned as the summer progresses.
And now let us turn to perhaps the one Apple device that has been rumored for EVEN LONGER than the iPad Mini: The iPhone 5.

We have but one next-gen iPhone rumor for you this week -- I know, shed a tear -- as the iPhone 5 continues its Ripken-esque appearance streak in This Week In Apple Rumors. We're going on a year and a half now, people.
The latest iPhone 5 rumor comes out of the Asian supply chain, via Digitimes, and claims that the next iPhone could come equipped with a quad-core processor, for faster performance and multitasking. The current processor in the iPhone 4S is dual-core.
Many of the latest flagship Android smartphones, including the HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy S III, ship with quad-core processors --though not in the United States, due to problems integrating the quad-core processor with the 4G LTE chip. Recently, however, the first smartphones with quad-core processors and LTE chips were released; given that the next iPhone is heavily expected to be a 4G LTE capable, that's good news for this rumor, however thinly-sourced it may be.
(We're still expecting the next iPhone -- with a 4.0-inch screen, 4G LTE, and NFC -- to drop in late September or early October (perhaps alongside an iPad Mini!)).
Speaking of "new Apple products rumored to be released in October"...

The ever-replenishing font of sketchy Apple rumors that is Taiwanese trade paper Digitimes is at it again, this time with a report that Apple will refresh its all-in-one iMac line this October.
Next-generation Intel Ivy Bridge chips are expected, and a Retina display MIGHT be on the menu; predictions are mixed, with most expecting the October refresh to be a simple internal boost, and for a wholesale redesign of the iMac, with Retina display, to arrive in 2013.
BUT...
Now seems like a good time to not buy an iMac: MacRumors notes that it's been about 430 days since the last time the iMac line was refreshed. Seems likely that one is coming this year; and with Apple seemingly set for a busy October, it might be wise to wait and see if the iMac will be included.

Though we have no idea what to call it, the next-generation iPad -- what we might have called the iPad 4, had the numerical nomenclature been kept in place -- is rumored to be releasing in December.
Once again via the busy beavers at Digitimes, the next iPad will apparently have a larger camera hole for even better pictures that are totally awkward to take, a thinner frame, and a better battery that doesn't make the device hot to the touch (which was briefly a scandal, remember?)
Digitimes claims Apple is aiming for a late 2012 launch, though that seems unlikely: The iPad 3 was just released in March, and Apple almost never releases a new product less than a year before the old one came out.
But then again, I'm often wrong, as my girlfriend and my mother and pretty much all of my friends like to tell me, so we could be seeing an iPad 4 in time for Christmas.
That's all for This Week In Apple Rumors. You can get your fix of Apple rumors right here every week; or, if you can't wait seven days, you can get up-to-the-minute Apple rumors by following me on Twitter right here. Arrivederci, everyone!